Agendas & Minutes

Overview

The Acton Leadership Group (ALG) is a group created to dialog and come to consensus regarding the future budgeting for the Town of Acton. Representatives of the Board of Selectmen, the Finance Committee, and an Acton representative of the Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee meet throughout the year to project the Town's financial resources. Given those projections and the state of the economy, as well as public input, the Boards work together to come to a consensus as to the best budget plan to present and recommend at the Annual Town Meeting.

Meetings are led by a professional facilitator. Once a consensus has been reached, these recommendations are taken back to the Boards for a vote. If voted down, each Board may report back to the group with suggested revisions and changes. The process is repeated until consensus is reached among the relevant Boards. This involves much give and take and negotiation.

The ALG process has been very successful at vetting most of the issues ahead of bringing the budgets to the Town Meeting. All along the way, public input at the budgeting meeting gets discussed and plugged into the ever-evolving plan. By the time it gets to Town Meeting it has had an extensive public airing, and most areas of disagreement and competition for resources have been worked out. The Finance Committee serves as the checks and balances to make sure that the budget that is produced is responsive to the needs and goals of the Town in a given year, as well as sustainable in future years. At all times, balancing these goals with the impact on individual taxpayers is a major part of the equation.